Willingness to pay for contraceptive vaginal rings in Nigeria.

Despite the progress made in reducing fertility and increasing the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in Kenya many women still experience a high unmet need for contraception. Part of the challenge in addressing current levels of unmet need is the limited use of contraception by women during the first 12 months postpartum. New methods are needed that offer greater ease of use that are women-initiated and that do not require significant health infrastructure or medical provider involvement for service delivery. One such method is the Progesterone Vaginal Ring (PVR) a user-initiated reversible contraceptive that according to clinical trial data is safe and effective for breastfeeding women. New product introduction strategies often suffer from lack of available market research and rely on hypothetical approaches to gauge consumer demand and provider readiness to offer services. The PVR a new product in sub-Saharan Africa faced such a challenge. For this reason we determined that a study on Willingness to Pay (WTP) was necessary to estimate the effect of price on potential consumer demand for the method in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to: (1) assess the willingness to pay for the PVR among potential users (women seeking family planning services at health facilities); (2) assess the willingness among health care providers (in public private nonprofit and private commercial sectors) to counsel on and offer the PVR to users; and (3) assess the willingness to procure the PVR among potential suppliers including the government and donors. The study was conducted in Nairobi County between March and June 2015. (excerpt)